iPhone Revisited (Verdict: Don't Buy) - Gizmodo

Not a positive leading indicator for Apple... 

It's about 3 months after the iPhone launch, and happy with the improvements, I was planning to change our "Wait" verdict to a full-on and rabid "Buy". That wasn't because of Apple, but because of the cool apps being offered by independent developers. All that came to an end yesterday after the new Apple firmware 1.1.1 neutered the handset. Sure, unlocked iPhones were broken. But more importantly, Apple wiped away the powerful programs that helped push the iPhone to greatness. With this, I'm going to have to move our recommendation from "Wait" to "Don't hold your breath." I'm done with this handset until third-party apps come back. Argh, I didn't want to have to write this, but this is what's on my mind.

iPhone Revisited (Verdict: Don't Buy) - Gizmodo

Business & Technology | iPhones disabled: Call that an update? | Seattle Times Newspaper

At least the iPhone paperweight-ification is optional; owners of hacked iPhones can stay with an outdated release of the system software...

Some hackers had characterized Apple's warning as "a scare tactic." Despite Apple's history of playing cat-and-mouse games with hackers in the past, company officials insisted they were "not proactively" trying to make hacked iPhones useless.

It was unclear how many iPhone owners had unlocked their phones, but the programs — including several that can be downloaded for free — appeared to be particularly popular with European consumers. Apple isn't selling the iPhone in Europe until November, so the unlocking software allowed Europeans who bought iPhones in the United States to use the $399 devices.

Installing Apple's latest iPhone update is optional.

Business & Technology | iPhones disabled: Call that an update? | Seattle Times Newspaper

Novell credits Microsoft for soaring Linux sales | CNET News.com

 Strange days indeed

Novell says its Linux business has grown by 243 percent over the last three quarters, and it largely credits its deal with Microsoft.

Novell has reached $100 million in revenue from Linux over the nine-month period, thanks to the close working relationship it has had with Microsoft since the two companies signed their collaborative deal in November.

Novell credits Microsoft for soaring Linux sales | CNET News.com

Altered iPhones Freeze Up - New York Times

I think this episode contradicts the "No such thing as bad press" conventional wisdom... 

It was not unexpected that Apple would try to stop people from unlocking the phones, as this threatened to cause problems for AT&T, Apple’s exclusive United States partner for the iPhone.

“I don’t blame them for fighting the unlocks,” said Brian Lam, editor of Gizmodo, a blog devoted to gadgets. “They are trying to make money, as a business. I get that.”

Still, he said, that disabling someone’s phone, “instead of just relocking it and to wipe out the apps, it seems like Apple is going way too far; I’d call it uncharacteristically evil.”

Altered iPhones Freeze Up - New York Times

Texting, Facebook used to alert students - Yahoo! News

Timely reality check

When a masked freshman came to campus at St. John's University with what police said was a loaded rifle sticking out of a bag, the school alerted students via cell-phone text messages within 18 minutes.

And when a suicidal gunman was reported to be on the loose at the University of Wisconsin, the school sent out mass e-mails and took out an ad on Facebook to warn students.

Texting, Facebook used to alert students - Yahoo! News

Ed Brill: Information Week: IBM Sees 100,000 Lotus Symphony Downloads In First Week

Nice Excel cheap shot, Ed.  Re the 100,000: was it perhaps something more like (number of IBM employees) * .33? :)

As I speculated...

IBM said Wednesday that the beta version of its free Lotus Symphony productivity software has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since the company made it available on the Internet a week ago.
IBM said the number represents a record for software downloaded from its Web site. To boot, the part of the company's site that hosts the software has been visited more than 1 million times during the same period, according to IBM.

and that 100,000 wasn't calculated by multiplying 77.1 * 850....

Ed Brill

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Tubes Networks at DEMO 2007 announces Tubes

Adesso's metamorphosis continues...

Tubes Networks has announced a new version of Tubes, a P2P file sharing and synching application. There are lots of different file sharing utilities out there, but most of them don't synch files across your own devices, or synch files to other users. Tubes is a really simple and fast way to share files and keep changes synchronized.

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Tubes Networks at DEMO 2007 announces Tubes

Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

 More on Apple's dilemma

Since the iPhone is a very sleek, capable handheld computer, people are going to want to run programs on it. They are going to want to hack and see what they can build. It’s a law of nature. And Apple might as well be fighting gravity.

Many other cell phones are locked down, of course. But few other phones capture the imagination of programmers the way the iPhone does.

[...]

Apple essentially has two choices. Either it exposes most of the iPhone’s capabilities to developers. Or it will have to gird for an ever escalating war in which it will have to send ever more electronic brick-bombs to its best customers who don’t follow its strict rules.

There's a third choice, of course; Apple can watch more flexible competitors run away with the market, as it has done in the past...

Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Owners of unlocked iPhones hosed by software update | One More Thing - CNET News.com

Something to be said for consistency... 

Well, you can't say they didn't warn you.

Apple released an update for the iPhone on Thursday that brings the Wi-Fi Music Store to the device, as well as several security fixes and enhanced features. But, as expected, it also turns iPhones that were unlocked to run on cellular networks other than AT&T's into little more than emergency call boxes.

Owners of unlocked iPhones hosed by software update | One More Thing - CNET News.com

Microsoft Extends Sales Availability of Windows XP

Pragmatic

Nash: While we’ve been pleased with the positive response we’ve seen and heard from customers using Windows Vista, there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista. As it turns out, our official policy as of 2002 is that versions of Windows are available through our retail and direct OEM partners for four years after they ship. Obviously this policy didn’t work with Windows XP given Windows Vista’s delivery date. As a practical matter, most of our previous operating system releases were available for about two years after the new version shipped, so maybe we were a little ambitious to think that we would need to make Windows XP available for only a year after the release of Windows Vista.

So we’re responding to feedback we have gotten from our OEM partners that some customers will benefit by extending availability of Windows XP to June 30, 2008 instead of the planned date of Jan. 30, 2008. Also, since some of the systems that ship in emerging markets don’t meet the requirements for Windows Vista, we will be extending availability of Windows XP Starter Edition to June 30, 2010. This will allow our OEM partners who sell PCs in emerging markets more opportunity to offer genuine Windows licenses. Windows XP Starter Edition is tailored to local markets, in local languages, and is compatible with a wide range of Windows-based applications and devices.

Microsoft Extends Sales Availability of Windows XP: Responding to feedback from its customers, the company decides to give small businesses and customers in emerging markets more time and flexibility to test and prepare for the operating system upgrade.

Business Technology : Google's Real Monopoly: Not Just Online Ads

WSJ on Goggle's challenges in Washington this week (the DoubleClick acquisition review) 

First, the Internet is still relatively new, and people are just now starting to figure out what information they’re comfortable sharing about themselves. In many cases, it’s already too late – they’ve already shared it. In others, they aren’t aware that they’re sharing something – search data being a good example – because there really isn’t a similar real-world behavior to compare it to. People are just starting to become concerned.

Second, as more and more aspects of work and life move online, the companies who provide services in the real world start looking for a way to provide a similar service online. They often find that Google is already there. “It’s hard to figure out if they’re your best friend or your competition,” a CIO once told this blogger.

Add it all together and Google’s “do no evil” motto may not be enough to pacify people.

Business Technology : Google's Real Monopoly: Not Just Online Ads

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The mind-reading computer

 Timely reality check from Nicholas Carr

In an interview with Technology Review, the director of Intel Research, Andrew Chien, looks ahead to what happens when, in the not so distant future, we have "machines with tens or hundreds of [processor] cores perform[ing] trillions of operations every second." What particularly excites him about what he calls terascale computing is "the ability for devices to understand the world around them and [infer] what their human owners care about." He foresees pocket-sized "intelligent systems" that, using various sensors and tapping into powerful machine-learning algorithms, will continuously monitor our physical movements, analyze our speech, sense our moods, and anticipate our needs

See the full post and the Technology Review article for more details.

A theme that I'll regularly revisit in my blog, going forward: it many ways, as an industry, information technology is just getting started...

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The mind-reading computer

Google plans staff expansion, largely in Europe: report - Yahoo! News

 Based on Microsoft's recent experience in Europe, Google may want to make a large percentage of those new-hires lawyers and lobbyists...

Google Inc (GOOG.O) is planning to expand its staff by a third, with most of the new hirings in Europe, the Financial Times reported on its Website.

The Web search company plans to hire several thousand engineers in Europe to create a research and development team in the region as big as in the United States, the report said.

Google plans staff expansion, largely in Europe: report - Yahoo! News

» Coming Soon: Microsoft 2.0 the book | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Mary Jo Foley turns her "unblinking eye on Microsoft" (her phrase, not mine) to book mode. 

After years of insisting I had no interest in writing a book, I’ve finally taken the plunge.

I am writing a book about — you guessed it — Microsoft. It will be published in the Spring of 2008 by John Wiley & Sons. The title: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era.

See her post for more details.  I suspect the folks at Waggener Edstrom have already formulated a team of people to, er, monitor the project...

I've often toyed with the idea of submitting a book proposal, and I'm constantly amazed by people such as Barry Briggs, who find time to write books (see the "Writings" section of his blog home page) despite very intense work schedules. 

I pitched a SharePoint book idea to Addison Wesley in 2006, and Tom Rizzo was kind enough to be an advocate for the proposal, but I didn't invest enough time in the proposal process (perhaps instinctively anticipating the disruption on my overall life/work balance equation, if AW had opted to go ahead with the proposal...) and didn't pursue it.

My hypertext research over the last couple years has also altered my world view on books -- I strongly prefer hypertext (reading and writing) to long narrative mode these days, which makes my day job -- largely focused on producing research documents that are notorious for their "thud factor" (i.e., if you print them and drop them...) -- more challenging in some respects; fortunately, Burton Group is investing a lot of energy in determining how we can optimize the use of hypertext to complement our traditional document models. 

Maybe I'll revisit the book scenario in a few years, when I may be able to publish a book that's more hypertext than dead-tree-format.

In the meantime, Mary Jo: I look forward to reading your book; let me know if/when/how I can help with the project.

» Coming Soon: Microsoft 2.0 the book | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

» Five take aways on Microsoft’s new Live Search | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Handy summary from Mary Jo Foley 

I was briefed and embargoed about what’s new in the fall update. (The embargoes ended at midnight EST.) I’ve posted a few screen shots of some of the new Live Search enhancements users can expect to be rolled out as part of the fall release between now and mid-October.

» Five take aways on Microsoft’s new Live Search | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Pattern Finder: Is It Time for Consumers to Move to Free Office Suites?

My Burton Group colleague Guy Creese recaps a recent press interview; see the post for more details. 

Peter O'Kelly and I fielded a call yesterday from Donna Fuscaldo of Fox News Business. She posed the following question: "Should consumers use these new free software packages [e.g., IBM Lotus Symphony or OpenOffice.org] as an alternative to Microsoft Office or Google's browser-based software?"

It's an interesting question, and one that shows that even general business reporters are noticing what Peter calls "an embarrassment of riches" in the space. Given that some suites are free (versus hundreds of dollars), you sort of feel the urge--at least I did--to say "Yes." However, the answer really isn't that simple.

Another thread from the interview was Microsoft's "ultimate steal" offer -- ~$60 for Office 2007 Ultimate for students (at least half-time and with a .edu email address), so for a key part of the productivity application target market, Microsoft has already done what Guy suggests (dropping the price of the full suite).

I also noted, during the interview, that the embarrassment-of-riches theme extends to workspace-based tools such as wikis, document libraries, and discussion forums.  E.g., I'm using a free Wetpaint wiki to facilitate a project with my local public school system, and it has been very effective.

Pattern Finder: Is It Time for Consumers to Move to Free Office Suites?

Microsoft Releases Updated Live Search Engine: Includes significant advancements in core technology and consumer experience.

See the press release for a bulleted list of new features 

Microsoft Corp. is releasing an update to Live Search (http://www.live.com) centered on improvements to core search technology and deeper advancements in the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health. Collectively, these improvements mark a quality milestone based on the company’s focus on delivering a better search experience for consumers and advertisers.

“With this update to Live Search, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to our 185 million consumers who use our service every month. We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers,” said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. “We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time.”

Microsoft Releases Updated Live Search Engine: Includes significant advancements in core technology and consumer experience.

Microsoft's Halo 3 Busts Games Record - WSJ.com

Impressive

Microsoft Corp. said its hotly anticipated new videogame, Halo 3, generated an estimated $170 million in U.S. sales in its first day of release, a record for the games industry and a big boost for Microsoft's Xbox 360 business.

[...]

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, called Halo 3's sales numbers "overwhelmingly impressive," adding that the figure was "probably unprecedented," ahead of other games with huge first-day sales, including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

He estimated that the game would help lift Xbox 360 sales for Microsoft to about 400,000 to 500,000 in the U.S. this month, up from 277,000 in August.

Microsoft's Halo 3 Busts Games Record - WSJ.com

New-Look Search Sites Aim to Close Google Gap - New York Times

Microsoft searches for differentiation... 

A search using the words “digital camera,” for instance, will deliver photos and links to reviews and shopping information for the most popular digital cameras. This “product guide,” which includes information culled from sites like Amazon.com and PriceGrabber.com, will be followed by traditional search results.

Over the next month, Microsoft will start using this approach for searches related to products, local businesses, health information and entertainment. The idea is to try to anticipate what users want, said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the search and advertising platform group at Microsoft.

New-Look Search Sites Aim to Close Google Gap - New York Times

Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: some changes ahead

I'm going to make some changes to my blogging routine.

My blog has been mostly a basic news filter for the last ~8 years. My first Blogger post was 1999/10/27, although the archive on this blog site only goes back to 2002/03 (I cycled through a couple other service providers before shifting to Blogger's blogspot).

I'm going to continue with the news filter routine, but I'm also going to start adding more original content here and at the Burton Group Collaboration and Content Strategies blog. I've got a lot of opinions about hypertext, content/data modeling, DBMS + XML, XQuery, and other topics, and I plan to block more time to share my perspectives -- and to hopefully foster constructive discussion.

I'll also be sharing more impressions about vendor briefings and industry events I'm involved with in industry analyst mode; stay tuned :)...

Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: some changes ahead

Traction Software, Inc. | Blog480: 11-12 September 2007 | Traction User Group Meeting

I had the opportunity to present at this event a couple weeks ago. More info about the event can be found here, and my presentation -- on the implications of hypertext and compound/interactive models on collaboration and content management -- file (pdf version) is available here. 

Traction Software, Inc. | Blog480: 11-12 September 2007 | Traction User Group Meeting

Halo 3 Takes Toll on Workforce - washingtonpost.com

Quite the event... 

Call it the Halo holiday, or the Halo bug.

Some gamers are going to be a little sleepy this week at work or school, if they show up at all. With yesterday's release of Halo 3, the highly anticipated video game for the Xbox 360 console, many gamers are taking some personal time.

I also enjoyed this NYT snippet:

Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, is the richest man on earth. R. J. Bollard, a freshman at the University of Washington, said he would have 73 cents left in his bank account as of midnight. And that’s one reason Mr. Gates is likely to be the richest man on earth for quite a while.

Both were at a Best Buy store in Bellevue, Wash., on Monday night as the third installment of Halo, Microsoft’s hit video game series, went on sale at 12:01 a.m. yesterday. Just before that moment, Mr. Gates was hand-shaking his way down the line of customers. Among them was Mr. Bollard, 18, who said the 73 cents was all he would have left after buying the game.

Halo 3 Takes Toll on Workforce - washingtonpost.com

Official Google Blog: A new caffeine-free way to stay alert

Another Google productivity enhancer... 

Since new videos are constantly appearing all over the web, it's difficult to keep tabs on all of them. But now Google Alerts will make it easy for you to add video to your other Alerts: News, Web, Blog and Groups.
Video Alerts enables you to specify any topics or queries of interest so we can deliver interesting and relevant videos on a daily, weekly, or as-it-happens basis (your choice) to you via email. To start receiving Video Alerts, you can visit the Google Alerts homepage directly or set up the alert during your normal video searches. Videos may come from Google Video, YouTube, or many other video sources on the web.

Official Google Blog: A new caffeine-free way to stay alert

Printing Parts of the Web | The Mossberg Solution | Katherine Boehret | AllThingsD

Interesting move for HP -- addressing part of the market opportunity previously addressed by tools such as Onfolio 

I tested the HP Smart Web Printing Software, a free program from Hewlett-Packard Co. that aims to help users compile a virtual clip book of content from Web sites while they’re browsing, within the same window. Using a tool in the browser, users highlight and copy images and text from a Web page and add them to the clip book. These clips can be edited, enhanced, saved as a PDF or printed out, without excess banner ads or sidebars.

Printing Parts of the Web | The Mossberg Solution | Katherine Boehret | AllThingsD

Microsoft Takes Aim at Google’s Ad Supremacy - New York Times

Timely snapshot 

MICROSOFT has used its might, clout and smarts to take on any number of products and services — the browser, the operating system, the portable music player, to name just three — with varying degrees of success.

Now, Microsoft is taking solid aim at a business that is arguably outside its core competence: advertising. And it is deliberately facing off against a specialist, Google.

The general in charge of part of Microsoft’s assault, Brian McAndrews, joined the company just last month and is still learning its way of doing things. But he does know the Internet ad business, having run aQuantive, the advertising company that Microsoft acquired for $6 billion last month.

Microsoft Takes Aim at Google’s Ad Supremacy - New York Times

Vonage Is Dealt a Setback With Second Big Legal Defeat - WSJ.com

I'm starting to seriously wonder if I'm going to need to find a new phone service provider... 

Vonage shares fell 34%, or 66 cents, to $1.30 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading -- an all-time low. Since its initial public offering, when the stock hit $17, the shares have steadily fallen over the past year and a half.

Vonage is working on a technology "workaround" to Sprint's patents, similar to how it is addressing the Verizon patents.

A pioneer in offering Internet-phone service, Vonage has suffered a flood of negative press and litigation, which have curtailed customer growth. But even before the problems, the company lost money as it spent heavily on subscriber growth.

Vonage Is Dealt a Setback With Second Big Legal Defeat - WSJ.com

Inside Microsoft's Plan To Bring In Outside Talent - WSJ.com

Timely Microsoft reality check 

Before Brian McAndrews agreed to take charge of a crucial piece of Microsoft Corp.'s online advertising business, he insisted on a key condition: that he be granted certain power over the engineering part of the operation.

The new job didn't have to include that authority, but Mr. McAndrews, new to the company, argued that to succeed in his mandate -- leading the charge against Google Inc. -- he needed it. And in Microsoft's engineering-driven culture, such a team could promise something else for Mr. McAndrews: longevity as a Microsoft executive.

That Microsoft granted his request illustrates a new approach Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is taking as he tries to expand the Redmond, Wash., company into new areas from online music to videogames to Internet advertising. Mr. Ballmer has found he must tap outsiders rather than rely so heavily on homegrown managers as in the past.

Inside Microsoft's Plan To Bring In Outside Talent - WSJ.com

A New Short Story Imagines Google as a Bad Big Brother - WSJ.com

More on "Scroogled" 

In science-fiction author Cory Doctorow's short story "Scroogled," a woman shrugs when she sees "Immigration--Powered by Google" on an airport sign, but that's just the beginning of the search giant's presence in a not-too-distant future.

Interview excerpt:

WSJ.com: Are there signs of that at Google? Are they doing something that concerns you?

Mr. Doctorow: Sure, absolutely, there have been lots of signs of that. I mean, one of the things that I think is in Google's DNA is a real tension about, on the one hand, being good to people, but on the other hand, acquiring as much information about them as they can, under the rubric that it allows them to be better to people.

And it does, a lot of the time. There are lots of ways in which Google knowing more about you makes Google better for you. But without much regard to what's happening in the world around us, in an era in which the national security apparatus has turned into a kind of lumbering, savage, giant toddler, it behooves us to not leave things within arm's reach that it might stick in its mouth. And that includes things like my search history. And I'd prefer that Google not be storing a lot of that stuff, especially today, especially after Patriot [Act] and so on. They're inviting abuse, I think, by doing that. The steps you don't save can't be subpoenaed. And by saving them, Google is inviting a subpoena.

So Google's always had this kind of "We will collect all your information, and it will belong to us, and you won't be able to take it away, but it's OK because we'll only do good things for you" attitude, and that's a bit of a problem.

A New Short Story Imagines Google as a Bad Big Brother - WSJ.com

Amazon.com begins offering digital music download service - The Boston Globe

Added to Amazon.com's Unbox service  

Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest Internet retailer, began a digital-music download service to compete with Apple Inc.'s iTunes, selling restriction-free tracks from more than 20,000 record labels.

The MP3 service offers 2.3 million songs from more than 180,000 artists, Amazon.com said yesterday. The songs, most priced from 89 to 99 cents, don't have software that limits how customers can store and play them.

[...]

"We already have 69 million active customers," Bill Carr, Amazon .com's vice president for digital music, said yesterday. "Most of those purchases are already in media products," he said. "We are adding MP3 downloads we think customers will love."

Amazon.com begins offering digital music download service - The Boston Globe

WebEx WebOffice: It's a Web Office Jim, But Not As We Know It

Timely reality check for Cisco/WebEx/WebOffice 

During the demo I discovered that WebEx's product has more in common with Salesforce.com, in that it's an on-demand service and doesn't offer standalone word processing, spreadsheet or presentations. So let's get this out of the way right now: WebEx WebOffice, despite the name, isn't an office suite package like Google Apps, Zoho, ThinkFree and others. Despite this, WebEx WebOffice seems to be a very good solution for small businesses - and even in parts of the enterprise (e.g. as a solution for individual teams or projects).

WebEx WebOffice: It's a Web Office Jim, But Not As We Know It

EMC acquires online backup provider Mozy - Network World

Hardware + software + services... 

Online backup services fit well into EMC’s data protection strategy. CEO Joe Tucci hinted at EMC’s intent to offer online backup services earlier this year in a quarterly earnings call. "In software-as-a-service, we have nothing yet, but stay tuned -- we will launch an offering here soon,” Tucci said. “When you think of the backup and recovery space, we'll have an alternative for customers. Rather than saying here's your hardware, software, and services, [we can say] we'll charge by the drip, and host all of that for you."

EMC acquires online backup provider Mozy - Network World

The Googlization of Everything

Interesting book project/site 

This blog, the result of a collaboration between myself and the Institute for the Future of the Book, is dedicated to exploring the process of writing a critical interpretation of the actions and intentions behind the cultural behemoth that is Google, Inc. The book will answer three key questions: What does the world look like through the lens of Google?; How is Google's ubiquity affecting the production and dissemination of knowledge?; and how has the corporation altered the rules and practices that govern other companies, institutions, and states?

The Googlization of Everything

Microsoft's 'Halo 3' Game Meets Approval of Critics - WSJ.com

 Timely reality check for Sony

Over the weekend, reviews of "Halo 3" began to surface. So far, the game has garnered a score of 96 on Metacritic, a site that blends game reviews from multiple sources into a single score.

With that rating, "Halo 3" tops almost all videogames released this year with the exception of "Bioshock" -- another title for the Xbox 360, from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., that scored a 96 rating.

[...]

The high scores of "Halo 3" help give the Xbox 360 an advantage over the rival PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. That console, which has been on the market less than a year, has so far fallen short of high expectations, in part because of a high price tag and the lack of compelling game titles. The highest Metacritic score for an exclusive PS3 game to date is 86, given to "Resistance: Fall of Man," published by Sony.

Microsoft's 'Halo 3' Game Meets Approval of Critics - WSJ.com

Microsoft Is Said to Consider a Stake in Facebook - New York Times

Interesting times 

There may be personal reasons that Facebook would align itself with Microsoft, according to a person with knowledge of the companies’ executives. Mr. Zuckerberg has a personal friendship with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect and one of the people stepping in for Bill Gates, the co-founder who is giving up his day-to-day responsibilities at the company.

Also, Jim Breyer, a managing partner at the venture capital firm of Accel Partners and one of three Facebook board members, was an investor in Groove Networks, Mr. Ozzie’s company, which Microsoft purchased in 2005.

Microsoft Is Said to Consider a Stake in Facebook - New York Times

Stealing Office 2007 - Office Watch

Glancing at this article and the related Microsoft site, it looks like this is for anyone (in the countries listed below) with an .edu email address (i.e., perhaps not just college students), although you may be required to prove you're actively enrolled if challenged

Microsoft is offering Office 2007 Ultimate edition for a fraction of the regular price to college students from now until April 2008.

In the US, Office 2007 Ultimate edition is officially $679 but college students can get it for only $59.95.

The same deal is available in Canada and the UK from today while Spain, Italy and France have similar offers form 20 September 2007.

Office Watch readers may remember that Australian university students had a similar offer earlier this year.  This wider offer is very similar but lasts a lot longer than the Aussie opportunity.  The Australian offer had the option of buying a one year use of Office 2007 but this is not available in the US arrangement (the UK does).

Stealing Office 2007 - Office Watch

Apple, EMC Rise on Bullish Analyst Comments - WSJ.com

 Interesting times

EMC added 69 cents, or 3.6%, to $19.73 on the New York Stock Exchange after Bear Stearns and Citigroup lifted their ratings. Both brokers pointed to EMC's ownership stake in spinoff VMware, which has a lead in the burgeoning virtualization market and seen its shares surge since its IPO a month ago.

"From a larger perspective, we see EMC as more than just a storage play: we also see that EMC management has been adept at finding the 'next big thing' in IT spending," Bear Stearns' Andrew Neff said in a note, "and growing those nascent businesses, enabling overall EMC to continue to grow."

At the moment, in terms of mkt cap:

EMC: $41.59B

VMW: $32.26B

Apparently some investors don't think the latter is the same type of money as the former -- otherwise EMC, as majority owner of VMWare, should have seen a much bigger mkt cap pop over the last month.

Apple, EMC Rise on Bullish Analyst Comments - WSJ.com

Happy Birthday, Sputnik! (Thanks for the Internet)

Useful historical recap 

Quick, what's the most influential piece of hardware from the early days of computing? The IBM 360 mainframe? The DEC PDP-1 minicomputer? Maybe earlier computers such as Binac, ENIAC or Univac? Or, going way back to the 1800s, is it the Babbage Difference Engine?

More likely, it was a 183-pound aluminum sphere called Sputnik, Russian for "traveling companion." Fifty years ago, on Oct. 4, 1957, radio-transmitted beeps from the first man-made object to orbit the Earth stunned and frightened the U.S., and the country's reaction to the "October surprise" changed computing forever.

For more on ARPA and J.C.R. Licklider's role, see the excellent book "The Dream Machine"

Happy Birthday, Sputnik! (Thanks for the Internet)

Adobe's CEO: The Quiet Giant - Global Business - MSNBC.com

Timely snapshot, with Adobe's annual MAX event next week 

When you think of software-application giants, you think Microsoft. For Web giants, it's Google or Amazon. But aside from so-called creative professionals, not many folks think of Adobe. Nonetheless Adobe, founded in 1982, takes in almost $3 billion a year from applications like Photoshop, Illustrator and Creative Suite 3. Billions of documents are encoded in its PDF file format, and the most popular video format on the Web, including the one used by YouTube, is its Flash product. The latter came to Adobe in a $3.4 billion purchase of Macromedia two years ago. Now the company is beta-testing Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a program it hopes will hasten the adoption of Web applications. The strategy comes from CEO Bruce Chizen, 52, a native Brooklynite who began his career in a sales job at Mattel's game division, followed by stints at Microsoft and Apple's onetime software arm Claris before he joined Adobe in 1994. He spoke to NEWSWEEK by phone from his office in San Jose, Calif.

(Thanks, Mike)

Adobe's CEO: The Quiet Giant - Global Business - MSNBC.com

Microsoft Goes Behind the Scenes - WSJ.com

 It'd probably be more efficient to petition directly with assorted world governments, as its competitors do...

Microsoft Corp. executives and a public-relations firm retained by the software giant are waging a quiet campaign to convince Internet companies, advertisers and regulators to oppose Google Inc.'s planned $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising specialist DoubleClick Inc.

In recent months, public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller pitched media outlets and Internet companies on what it said were the dangers of the deal, which would bolster Google's already strong presence in online advertising. In the written pitches reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Burson cites the deal as part of a larger discussion of "fair and free competition" in Internet-search and privacy rights of consumers.

Microsoft Goes Behind the Scenes - WSJ.com

One Laptop Per Child seeks consumers' help - The Boston Globe

Interesting reality check 

In an interview last week, Nicholas Negroponte, the former MIT Media Lab director and founder of the so-called $100 laptop initiative, conceded that he had not locked in the 3 million orders that he once said were necessary to trigger mass production.

The new "Give 1, Get 1" initiative could be the antidote, he said, by helping to spread the project.

For a limited two-week span in November, people will be able to buy two laptops for $399, one for the buyer and one for a child in a developing country.

One Laptop Per Child seeks consumers' help - The Boston Globe

Googles Cables Make Unnecessary Waves - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

The rest of the story? 

But my sources told me that Google has long considered becoming part owner of undersea cables, not as part of some new telecom venture, but rather because it needs the bandwidth to move massive amounts of digital information between its data centers around the world. The company already leases capacity in underwater cables, and owning some of the cables outright might prove cheaper than paying rents.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has long described the company’s collection of massive data centers around the world as the world’s largest supercomputer. If Google joins the Unity project, it will simply be adding a vital communications link to make sure that its supercomputer, and all the Web pages, videos and applications it delivers to millions of users around the world, is equally responsive in Asia as it is on this side of the Pacific.

Googles Cables Make Unnecessary Waves - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

From the Web - washingtonpost.com

Timely reality check 

Using electronic devices to telecommute saves enough energy to power 1 million U.S. households for a year, according to a study released by the Consumer Electronics Association.

The study, commissioned by the association and conducted by TIAX of Cambridge, Mass., found that "just one day of telecommuting saves the equivalent of up to 12 hours of an average household's electricity use."

The country has about 3.9 million telecommuters, who collectively save about 840 million gallons of gas and 14 million tons of carbon dioxide emission a year. That's equal to taking 2 million vehicles off the road, the study said.

From the Web - washingtonpost.com

The Water Cooler Is Now On The Web (BusinessWeek)

More mainstream social networking momentum 

Plenty of big, mainstream companies look at the fast-growing social network scene as a place to market their products. But many are also adopting the same Web technology to create internal networks. It turns out to be an efficient way to mine for in-house expertise, discover new recruits, and share information within their own walls. Setting up a corporate version of a social network has its own challenges, as well. Companies have to build in safeguards to ensure that they can track the discussions and document sharing, to be certain that employees comply with government regulations and don't tumble into legal hot water.
Corporations are being nudged along by employees, and not just the digital-savvy Generation Y that's now entering the workforce. More 30-plus employees are signing up with Facebook to trade daily updates with colleagues and friends. They're also building lists of contacts from among the 13 million professionals on LinkedIn. At Ernst & Young alone, 11,000 workers now have Facebook accounts.
That translates into a juicy new sales opportunity for tech companies that sell networking products. Everyone from IBM (IBM )to Microsoft (MSFT ) and on down to startups like intro Networks, Awareness Inc., and Jive Software, are offering applications and services.

Coincidentally, my Burton Group colleagues Guy Creese, Mike Gotta, and I had an on-site briefing with Awareness yesterday.  I'm impressed with their customer success stories and their unified architecture.

The Water Cooler Is Now On The Web

The Elegant iPod Touch (BusinessWeek)

I continue to be amazed by Apple being successful with deliberately dumbed-down products.  Sure, I suppose I could buy an iPod Touch and then find some clever hacks to work-around the Apple app restrictions etc., but that would almost certainly leave me with a no-update-option device.  I'll wait for a similar device with a software platform that doesn't include dictatorial vendor constraints.

Apple's marketing mavens are very clever folks, and I'm sure that all of the decisions over what to include and what to leave off result from careful calculations. The omissions I've described probably won't make a dent in the soon-to-be explosive sales of the Touch. Still, it's a shame Apple has delivered such a beautiful and well-conceived piece of hardware with locked-down software that makes it far less useful than it could be.

The Elegant iPod Touch

Has Google Plans to Lay a Pacific Cable? - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Timely reality check 

Google may be the ultimate do-it-yourself company. From the start, Google’s sense of its own engineering superiority, combined with a tightwad sensibility, led it to build its own servers. It writes its own operating systems.

It is now threatening to buy wireless carrier spectrum and it is getting ready to hire ships that will lay a data communications cable across the Pacific, according to a report from Communications Day, an Australian trade news service.

Has Google Plans to Lay a Pacific Cable? - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

GOOG: 560.10 +7.27 (1.32%) - Google Inc.

With a market cap of ~$175B, Google is now worth more than

• IBM (~$160B)
• Intel (~$151B)
• HP (~$130B)
• Apple (~$125B)
• Oracle (~$112B)
• Yahoo! (~$35B)

Strange days indeed...

GOOG: 560.10 +7.27 (1.32%) - Google Inc.

Google Presentations gets the green light | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Timely reality check 

Google Presentations is a decent free, Web-based solution for creating slide shows, but the limited feature set hurts it when compared with PowerPoint. I give Google some points for the collaboration and sharing features, but that's not enough to get me to switch. I understand the concept behind trying to provide a simple solution, but this is a case where simple is not necessarily better.

Google Presentations gets the green light | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Mint: Solid but incomplete online personal finance | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

 Interesting, but with Intuit Quicken and Microsoft Money available at very low cost these days, Mint will need competitive advantages other than price.

Mint is an online financial management service, clearly designed to compete with Intuit's Quicken and Quicken Online. Unlike many of the existing online banking and budgeting products, you won't run out of gas with this product too fast, although it does not have the depth of software like Quicken.

The product has an interesting business model: It's free. Mint makes money for itself, and for you, by looking at your spending habits and your accounts and recommending offers that will save you money. Got a high-interest credit card? Spending too much on DSL? Mint's advertising network will match offers from its partners to your particular situation. Mint's consumer pitch is that it will save you thousands of dollars a year if you listen to its paid advice.

Mint: Solid but incomplete online personal finance | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Infor: The $2B Company No One Has Ever Heard Of

Founded in 2002 and already #3 in enterprise apps? 

For a company that has amassed 72,000 customers—more than SAP and Oracle combined—has acquired more than 30 companies in the past five years (running neck-and-neck with Oracle's much ballyhooed acquisition tally), and realized more than $2 billion in sales last year alone, Infor doesn't get no respect.

Founded in 2002 by a group of software industry veterans and private equity firms, Infor has grown to become the third-largest enterprise applications vendor in the world behind SAP and Oracle. Yet the company is little known outside of its customer base, and, because it's private, according to the company's top executive, receives little attention from analysts and media.

Infor: The $2B Company No One Has Ever Heard Of

Oracle’s Profit for Quarter Is Up 25% - New York Times

Impressive... 

Oracle reported a 25 percent rise in its fiscal first-quarter profit Thursday, helped by higher-than-expected sales of new software.

The company’s revenue and earnings per share excluding special items exceeded Wall Street expectations.

“We continue to take applications market share from SAP,” Oracle’s president, Charles E. Phillips Jr., said in a statement, referring to the German maker of business software that is one of its main rivals.

Oracle’s Profit for Quarter Is Up 25% - New York Times

Has Google actually read U.S. v. Microsoft? - page 2 | Perspectives | CNET News.com

A timely and provocative perspective; start with page 1 of the article 

So what is really going on, if Google is not interested in operating systems (much better money in search)? The real game is to blur all boundaries between desktop search and Internet search, so as to use Google's existing market power to maximum leverage. If this twists the Microsoft consent order away from its proper focus, and turns it into a device for suppressing competition in search by preventing Microsoft from developing a superior desktop product, which it then expands into search, that is a bonus.

An ironist might call this monopoly maintenance by Google. Perhaps antitrust fans can anticipate a U.S. v. Google, in which Exhibit 1 will be the intervention brief.

Has Google actually read U.S. v. Microsoft? - page 2 | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Business & Technology | Seattle-based Cray has massive new data cruncher | Seattle Times Newspaper

 Cray aims for mainstream computing

For a company whose supercomputers can simulate the origin of the universe, making another big leap in computing technology takes time.

But after 12 years of development, Cray says it's introducing a new type of supercomputer that analyzes vast amounts of data simultaneously.

[...]

Seattle-based Cray is known for creating supercomputers that pack a lot of computational power and allow complex simulations useful for scientific research. This time, it is introducing technology that takes it in a new direction with more commercial applications, in fields such as business intelligence, bioinformatics and power-grid analysis.

For some fascinating insights into the history of Cray (the company and the person), check out "The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer".  The book is a decade old, but it's still a very useful reality check.

Business & Technology | Seattle-based Cray has massive new data cruncher | Seattle Times Newspaper

SAP Unveils Web Software, New Business Model - New York Times

A big bet for SAP

It said it will have invested up to 400 million euros ($559 million) in marketing and ramping up Business ByDesign by the end of next year. One-fifth of the company's 12,300 developers are working on the project.

Business ByDesign, which integrates management of areas including financials, human resources, supply chain and customer relationship management will cost $149 per month per user and $54 per month per five users for a pared-down version.

The offering is both more complex and more expensive than competing products from the likes of Internet software pioneer Salesforce.com Inc , which has 35,000 customers and whose prices start from $60 per user per month.

SAP Unveils Web Software, New Business Model - New York Times

Microsoft Solution Provides Innovative, Easy-to-Use Performance Management Capabilities: Q&A

 Microsoft seeks to expand and democratize another market segment...

PressPass: What is Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007?

Caren: Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 is a performance management application that customers can use to develop strategies, set plans and goals expressed as metrics and key performance indicators, cascade them across the organization to groups and individuals, and enable people to track business results day in and day out, letting them understand and analyze whether and why their business plans are off course or above target.

The ease of use of the application enables very broad usage – our target is to reach 5-10 times the number of people of a traditional performance management application. The flexibility of PerformancePoint Server 2007 allows it to span functions and business units – enabling sales, finance and operations to operate in their own way, but always be on the same page.

Unlike traditional business intelligence offerings, which tend to focus on historical information, Office Performance Point Server 2007 is much more about helping manage the business into the future – that is, taking a forward view by setting goals that look out a quarter, a year, or several years – then helping people play a role in developing plans and contribute to business results.

Microsoft Solution Provides Innovative, Easy-to-Use Performance Management Capabilities: Q&A: Chris Caren, general manager of Office Business Applications, discusses how Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 can help businesses large and small – and their employees – use Microsoft Business Intelligence broadly to better manage their business.

Apple's iPod Touch is a Beauty of a Player Short on Battery Life

Check the review for more details

Apple says the Touch was meant mainly to present typical iPod features, not to replicate the iPhone, and it included the Web browser only so users could get onto Wi-Fi to use the mobile music store in certain places that required a log-in screen.

But it seems ridiculous to me to sell a powerful device with Wi-Fi and a huge screen, and to leave out things like an email program, even though you can use Web-based email programs. I assume Apple was concerned that the less costly Touch might compete too much with the iPhone if it had these features. In fact, if somebody can jam a voice-over-Internet capability into the iPod Touch, it might be more of a threat to the iPhone, which is tethered to a single cellphone carrier, AT&T.

Personal Technology Walt Mossberg AllThingsD

ABC's AOL Pact Marks Web's Growing TV Allure - WSJ.com

 It's a shame there are so few shows worth watching these days, with all of these convenient viewing options...

Walt Disney Co.'s ABC became the latest major network to strike a deal with AOL allowing its full-length prime-time shows to be available free on the Time Warner Inc.-owned portal.

ABC shows will be available on AOL starting today, a few weeks before NBC Universal and News Corp.'s Fox are expected to launch their jointly owned online venture Hulu, which will make NBC and Fox programs available on several major Web portals including AOL. CBS shows are already available on AOL. CBS is a unit of CBS Corp.; NBC is a unit of General Electric Co.

[...]

As part of the deal, ABC will use "geo-targeting" to embed one local ad appropriate for each viewer alongside three national ads in each hour of programming. The deal is a welcome one for affiliates, which have feared being on the losing end as networks move their content online.

ABC's AOL Pact Marks Web's Growing TV Allure - WSJ.com

NBC to offer popular shows to download for free in November - The Boston Globe

Interesting times... 

NBC Universal said yesterday it would soon permit consumers to download many of NBC's most popular programs to personal computers and other devices - initially free of charge - for one week immediately after their broadcasts.

The service, which is set to start in November after a test period in October, comes less than three weeks after NBC Universal said it was pulling its programs out of the highly successful iTunes service of Apple Inc. That partnership fell apart because of a dispute over Apple's iTunes pricing policies and what NBC executives said were concerns about lack of privacy protection.

NBC to offer popular shows to download for free in November - The Boston Globe

IBM takes aim at Office with free productivity apps - Network World

Nice catch from John Fontana; perhaps IBM concluded Wikipedia updates are more effective than traditional press releases...

IBM is the pioneer in offline use with its Notes architecture and is likely to build similar capabilities into the Symphony offering, although IBM’s Brill said he had no announcements around future plans.

Lotus has used the Symphony name before, on an integrated package of productivity applications for DOS that was a follow-on to the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. The package did not meet with great success, and IBM wasted no time updating its Wikipedia entry for Lotus Symphony.

IBM takes aim at Office with free productivity apps - Network World

Neutron Randy Vaporizes AOL - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Ctrl-alt-del time at AOL again; read the post for details 

Maybe this all makes sense. There might be a good business combining Advertising.com, and the several other advertising related companies AOL has bought. The portal business is tough for everybody, even Yahoo, as more and more Internet page views are being delivered by social networks.

But whatever it is that Mr. Falco is trying to build, it looks like it will be from scratch, rather than built from any of the people, technology, customers or experience that AOL has accumulated over two decades.

Neutron Randy Vaporizes AOL - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Ed Brill: News and announcements from the Lotus Collaboration Summit

Handy summary from Ed Brill (handy in part because you'd have to be an investigative reporter to create a similar summary from information available on the IBM site...)

In a 2+ hour keynote, there was a lot of news.  In addition to the Lotus Symphony announcement and the news that a sustained line-of-business advertising campaign for Notes 8 has begun, there was other news:

• Announcement of IBM's Applications on Demand service for Lotus Notes.  This is a pay-as-you-go service offering for Notes messaging, which Mike Rhodin indicated is priced between US$5 - $10 per user per month. I've been working with the AoD team as this offer gets going, and found that they have a lot of flexibility around what services to offer and at what price points.
• Announcement of Notes/Domino 8.0.1.  I'll post a separate blog entry with the feature list from this announcement, planned for availability in Q1, 2008.
• Announcement of a new Domino Web Access lightweight mode, a very fast and lightweight UI for DWA coming in 8.0.1.
• Announcement of Notes Traveler, a new feature of Domino 8.0.1 to support push mail to Windows Mobile devices at no additional cost.  This announcement was in addition to the existing partnerships with RIM, Nokia, Motorola's Good Technology, CommonTime, iAnywhere, and Visto.
• Announcement of Quickr 8.1, a 2008 release including a connector for Notes 8, a connector for Microsoft Outlook, performance and usability improvments, personal file sharing services, and enablers for integration with enterprise content management systems.
• Announcement of a new product, the Quickr Content Integrator, designed to bring content from a variety of IBM and non-IBM content repositories into the Quickr environment with no customization required.
• Announcement of Lotus Forms 3.0, a updated version of the product which includes a zero-footprint web-based filler.

Ed Brill

Strategy Letter VI - Joel on Software

Timely reality check from Joel Spolsky, who begins the letter with a recap of Lotus Symphony (the original version) and 1-2-3.  Excerpt: 

Imagine, for example, that you’re Google with GMail, and you’re feeling rather smug. But then somebody you’ve never heard of, some bratty Y Combinator startup, maybe, is gaining ridiculous traction selling NewSDK, which combines a great portable programming language that compiles to JavaScript, and even better, a huge Ajaxy library that includes all kinds of clever interop features. Not just cut ‘n’ paste: cool mashup features like synchronization and single-point identity management (so you don’t have to tell Facebook and Twitter what you’re doing, you can just enter it in one place). And you laugh at them, for their NewSDK is a honking 232 megabytes … 232 megabytes! … of JavaScript, and it takes 76 seconds to load a page. And your app, GMail, doesn’t lose any customers.

But then, while you’re sitting on your googlechair in the googleplex sipping googleccinos and feeling smuggy smug smug smug, new versions of the browsers come out that support cached, compiled JavaScript. And suddenly NewSDK is really fast. And Paul Graham gives them another 6000 boxes of instant noodles to eat, so they stay in business another three years perfecting things.

Imagine, further, that "NewSDK" just might come from Microsoft...

Strategy Letter VI - Joel on Software

Google Program Enlists Mini-Sites as Selling Tool for Advertisers - New York Times

Strange days indeed 

The online giant will announce today a Gadget Ads program that will provide tools for advertisers to run widget ads in Google’s AdSense network.

Marketers can use space within these display ads on Google’s network to show videos, offer chats with celebrities, play host to games or other activities. If consumers like the widget ad, they can save it onto their desktops or on their profile pages online on sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Google Program Enlists Mini-Sites as Selling Tool for Advertisers - New York Times

Technology Review: New York Times to stop charging fees for access to columnists, other material on Web site

Very glad to see this 

The New York Times said Monday it is scrapping a two-year-old program to charge fees for access to parts of its Web site, including op-ed columnists and archives dating back to 1987.

As of midnight Tuesday, the Times will discontinue its TimesSelect feature, which cost $49.95 per year or $7.95 by the month. Home delivery subscribers were able to sign up for free.

The move reflects a growing shift in thinking in the media industry, where it had once been thought that charging for access to some or all of a Web site was the best strategy for making money.

Technology Review: New York Times to stop charging fees for access to columnists, other material on Web site

Official Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog: And now we present...

Busy times in the productivity applications space... 

Earlier this year, we told you that in addition to documents and spreadsheets, we'd soon be adding support for presentations as well. We know you've been waiting, and today we're excited to invite you to try out presentations for yourself at http://documents.google.com.
Just like Google documents and spreadsheets, presentations are stored securely online, so you can access them from anywhere using only a web browser. Working together with one or more people to put together a killer presentation? Not a problem, just like with documents and spreadsheets, you can collaborate with others and see everyone's changes in real time.

Official Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog: And now we present...

Pattern Finder: Dreamforce Announcements: Visualforce and Salesforce Content

Guy Creese on a subtle Salesforce strategic shift 

Salesforce also announced Salesforce Content, a new service derived from their Koral acquisition. It's basically in-context content management: rather than storing marketing and sales documents in other repositories (e.g., SharePoint or Documentum) companies can store them in Salesforce. When a company generates a sales proposal to a prospect, they can store it with their Salesforce record. However, it's not just an attachment capability. Users can vote on content (giving a thumbs up to a good datasheet and a thumbs down to a bad datasheet), subscribe to alterations in content (notify me when the pricelist changes), and see which is most popular based on downloads.

This is an interesting alternative to horizontal collaboration and content solutions such as SharePoint 2007. Rather than getting into an IT-centric platform debate, business units will buy Salesforce Content to solve a specific problem they have (the sales reps can't find the relevant documents easily). This is a camel-getting-its-nose-in-the-tent move by Salesforce.com.

Pattern Finder: Dreamforce Announcements: Visualforce and Salesforce Content

Microsoft Ruling May Bode Ill for Other Companies - New York Times

The lawyer full-employment act expands to Europe... 

Software and legal experts said the European ruling might signal problems for companies like Apple, Intel and Qualcomm, whose market dominance in online music downloads, computer chips and mobile phone technology is also being scrutinized by the European Commission.

[...]

The direct impact on Microsoft is small, said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. But there may be a longer-range consequence of having Microsoft under constant, open-ended scrutiny from Europe.

“If you end up handicapping a major player in new markets, you may actually not enhance competition but hinder it, and help create new monopolies,” Mr. Yoffie said. “The obvious example is Google in Internet search and Apple in digital music.”

Microsoft Ruling May Bode Ill for Other Companies - New York Times

Alaska Air Tests Satellite Web Access - WSJ.com

This will be a mixed blessing, but it's inevitable... 

As the race to provide email, Internet connectivity and other Wi-Fi options to fliers at an affordable price accelerates, Alaska Airlines intends to be the first U.S. carrier to offer a satellite-based system.

The ninth-largest U.S. carrier by traffic, which is expected to disclose its effort today, has committed to a monthlong test in the spring of a system provided by Row 44 Inc., a closely held Westlake Village, Calif., start-up. If successful, the airline said it intends to equip its 114-aircraft fleet by the end of 2009.

Alaska Air Tests Satellite Web Access - WSJ.com

Free IBM Software Is Bid to Challenge Microsoft Office - WSJ.com

Strange days indeed 

Because Symphony will be available free in the latest edition of Notes, it should get a look from organizations around the world, which have 135 million Notes users. Users will be able to use Symphony to view and edit a spreadsheet or write a presentation without having to open a new application.

Doug Heintzman, director of technical strategy for IBM's software group, says putting Symphony inside Notes reflects his view that collaboration software now provides the greatest value in software for workers. "Spreadsheets, and word processors and presentations have been around a long time. They're pretty static. The real value is in how people work together," he says.

That is certainly reflected in the price. When Lotus introduced the first Symphony in 1983, it priced it at $595.

Free IBM Software Is Bid to Challenge Microsoft Office - WSJ.com

The Cover Pages: IBM Lotus Symphony

I have mixed emotions about the name, as I suspect most Lotus alumni will, but I think this is a smart move on IBM's part.  See the post below for more details. 

As part of its investment in the next wave of collaboration technology, IBM today released IBM Lotus Symphony, a suite of free software tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Beginning today at www.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony, business, academic, governmental and consumer users alike can download this enterprise-grade office software, which is the same tool inside some of IBM's most popular collaboration products, such as the recently released Lotus Notes 8. In addition, these tools can be used to seamlessly extend a business process or custom application to create dynamic composite applications.

The Cover Pages: IBM Lotus Symphony

Yahoo! Acquires Zimbra

Excerpts from the Zimbra press release:

We are excited to announce today that Yahoo! is acquiring Zimbra to extend its email leadership to the University, Business and ISP markets. In order to focus on this effort, the Zimbra team will report to the communications group where we will remain fully committed to the community and to our customers and partners while leveraging opportunities to enhance their current experience.

We will continue to make our software available for download and continue to offer Zimbra software and support as usual. This evolution further allows Zimbra to exceed its current (and future) customer expectations by leveraging the world class Yahoo! email experience and expertise. Partnering continues to be a very important pillar of Yahoo!'s strategy and this combination will have a renewed focus on partnerships across the globe including our 350+ VAR and hosting partners. The combination of the two companies will only enhance the level of commitment and support to our hosting partners who will remain a key focus for us moving forward.

Yahoo! Acquires Zimbra

Yahoo Buys Zimbra for $350 Million | BoomTown | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD

I've suspected Zimbra wouldn't be independent indefinitely, but this comes as a bit of a surprise; I can think of a couple more logical acquirers. 

Yahoo is set to make yet another acquisition–this time of white-label open-source email provider Zimbra. Sources close to the deal said that the Internet portal will pay $350 million, considerably upwards of its most recent valuation, for the email and calendar provider.

Yahoo Buys Zimbra for $350 Million | BoomTown | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD

Online Presentation Apps: Google Presently's Competition

Handy snapshot analysis of key players including Preezo, SlideShare, Spresent, ThinkFree Show, and Zoho Show

TechCrunch reports that Google will launch a new product next week at Techcrunch 40, while The Inquirer found out that "Google is presently touring publishing houses to show Presently, so even if they make hacks sign an infuriatingly Web 1.0 non-disclosure agreement, an announcement can’t be far off." Now that Google's presentation tool (code-named Presently) is about to be released, let's see what are the most important online apps that let you create and share presentations.

[Summary:]

Google Presently has a big chance to become a powerful alternative to these applications if:

* it can do a good job at importing PowerPoint files (and not just small files) - most presentation apps have problems
* you can export the presentation as a PPT, HTML or SWF file
* the collaboration works as good as in Google Docs - I couldn't find an app that allows real-time collaboration
* it can add content from the web (Flickr photos, YouTube videos, Google Maps)
* you can embed the presentation in your site (or just some slides)

Online Presentation Apps: Google Presently's Competition

FT.com / In depth - Microsoft says rivals may rue siding with EU

Interesting times... 

The developer suggests that other software and technology companies such as IBM, Google and Apple could be next in line should the European Commission decision be upheld. It argues that the legal reasoning applied by the Brussels watchdog may well be turned against some of the very companies that have supported the Commission’s case and trigger a broader crackdown on the industry.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, told the Financial Times: “Obviously, law that is made for Microsoft is going to apply to other market leaders as well. IBM, Google, Apple and others would have to look very carefully at the implications for their business models.”

[...]

The most prominent backers of the Brussels line are grouped in an association called Ecis. These include IBM, Oracle, Sun, Nokia, Adobe and Red Hat. Google has not formally sided with the Brussels regulator, but is understood to have raised concerns about Microsoft’s behaviour regarding web search engines.

FT.com / In depth - Microsoft says rivals may rue siding with EU

BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft loses anti-trust appeal

Tough start to the week in Redmond... 

Microsoft has lost its appeal against a record 497m euro (£343m; $690m) fine imposed by the European Commission in a long-running competition dispute.

The European Court of First Instance upheld the ruling that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position.

BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft loses anti-trust appeal

Google Docs and Spreadsheets clause gives pause | InfoWorld

 Disconcerting -- via Barry Briggs

Google is in damage control mode over a clause in the user agreements for its Google Docs and Spreadsheets applications that implies an inordinate degree of power over the content that runs over its services.

The clause reads: "By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services."

Google Docs and Spreadsheets clause gives pause | InfoWorld

Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog: Two Upcoming SharePoint Workshops

Two near-term Burton Group Collaboration and Content Strategies workshops, FYI 

I just wanted to give a heads-up that there are two more of our SharePoint Strategy workshops coming up.  The full-day workshop is called "SharePoint and Office 2007: New Enterprise Collaboration/Content Opportunities and Risks".

You've got your choice of two lovely locales: Scottsdale, Arizona on October 4th and Barcelona, Spain on October 22nd (as part of Catalyst Europe).

For those that might be aware of the workshop from the instances we taught in San Francisco (at the Catalyst conference) and in Boston, I'm happy to say that for the next round we've added a 30 minute module on SharePoint Planning and Deployment that gives an overview on SharePoint governance, deployment pre-work (with a handy checklist), deploying SharePoint in the enterprise, and adoption of SharePoint in the enterprise (what we've found organizations that are successful or unsuccessful with SharePoint have in common).

Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog: Two Upcoming SharePoint Workshops

EMusic, a Song-Download Site, to Offer Audiobooks - New York Times

Hmm... 

The company that has given Apple’s iTunes the most competition in the song-download arena will now compete with it in selling audiobooks, too.

Beginning tomorrow, eMusic, which is second to iTunes in music download sales, will offer more than a thousand books for download, with many of them costing far less than on iTunes. For example, “The Audacity of Hope,” read by author Barack Obama, will cost $9.99 on eMusic compared with $18.95 on iTunes. The retail price for a five-CD version of the same book is $29.95.

EMusic, a Song-Download Site, to Offer Audiobooks - New York Times

A Big Sales Job For Salesforce.com (BusinessWeek)

 Timely reality check

Some of the industry's most powerful companies are rushing into Salesforce.com's (CRM ) core business, software that helps salespeople keep track of how much they've sold to specific customers, when they need to call on them again, and if they've met their quota. This comes just as Salesforce.com is trying to expand into new markets. "The question is: Can this company go from being a one-hit wonder to a whole body of work?" says analyst Jason Maynard of Credit Suisse (CS ).

Perhaps not, given quotes such as the following:

Benioff, not surprisingly, has bottomless faith that his software-as-a-service model will not only increase in importance but eventually prevail. He vows: "Part of our mission is to end Microsoft."

A Big Sales Job For Salesforce.com

Almost On Palms And Knees (BusinessWeek)

 Things have gotten out of hand at Palm...

It has reached the point where a company once regarded as one of the most innovative in the field is regularly dismissed by competitors. The latest example came on Sept. 5, when Motorola Inc. acting Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Meredith praised Apple Inc.'s touchscreen iPhone as a great innovation worth copying. Too bad the Treo introduced users to the touchscreen more than five years ago. Likewise, few remember that in 2003, the Treo 600 delivered many of the same bells and whistles as Apple's recent entry: a built-in camera, music and video player, and the ability to fetch e-mails and dial directly from a contact list.
Today, even the most ardent Treo fans seem ready to give up. Palm Inc. has used the same operating software, with minor updates, for five years. It is struggling to get a major new version out this year. In the meantime, rivals have delivered new software that's far more multimedia-friendly. No wonder Palm's net income in the most recent quarter plunged 43%, to $15.4 million.

Almost On Palms And Knees

It Isn't Just YourSpace Anymore (BusinessWeek)

If it ever was just your space... 

As people make social-networking sites a bigger part of their lives—swapping weekend updates with friends or creating business profiles—they're leaving behind a vast trail of personal data. A crop of new companies has sprung up to pull that information together—and make a buck from it.
Around 30 startups, with such fanciful names as Rapleaf, Spock, and Wink, are building services that specialize in tracking people and their reputations, and sites where people can edit their social-network profiles from one hub. As they fan out, these companies are raising questions about what privacy means now that every experience or memory is fodder for sharing online.

It Isn't Just YourSpace Anymore

Yahoo Mash: The Social Network for Graffiti Lovers - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

More on Yahoo's latest attempt at social networking

And the site is for now largely divorced from the rest of Yahoo. The idea behind Yahoo’s last attempt at social networking—Yahoo 360—is that it pulled together everything users did on Yahoo: posting photos on Flickr, reviewing restaurants on Yahoo Local, bookmarking web sites on Del.icio.us, and so on. That wasn’t a bad idea, but the site was so utilitarian that no one used it.

Yahoo is trying (very very hard) to give Mash the irreverent feel of a Web 2.0 startup. If this actually catches on, and people do want to keep changing each other’s profiles, it will be easy to add more useful features later on.

Yahoo Mash: The Social Network for Graffiti Lovers - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

While in the Kitchen, Stir the Stew and Surf the Web - New York Times

Given current laptop prices, why not just bring a laptop into the kitchen/wherever?

 

“Forty-seven percent of all American adults have a broadband connection at home as of early 2007,” said Mary Madden, a senior research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That connection has prompted people to do more and more on the computer, from video-watching to discarding phone books and cookbooks in favor of online research. “Once people get that always-on connection,” she said, “they do more of everything online.”

While in the Kitchen, Stir the Stew and Surf the Web - New York Times

A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to Close - New York Times

Timely reality check; read the full article 

The official line from Apple is that all has gone swimmingly. The company said it shipped 1.52 million Macs in the first quarter of this year, up 35 percent from the year-ago quarter. In the second quarter through June 30, it shipped 1.76 million Macs, up 32 percent from a year ago, an all-time quarterly record.

Funny thing, though: based on the ratio of Windows and Macs actually in use, no gains can be seen for Apple.

The Mac’s share of personal computers has actually edged a bit lower since Vista’s release in January, and the various flavors of Windows a bit higher, according to Net Applications, a firm in Aliso Viejo, Calif., that monitors the operating systems among visitors to 40,000 customer Web sites.

A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to Close - New York Times

The power of a cellular tower -- now in a home version - The Boston Globe

Interesting times 

Femtocells are tiny cellular base stations that consumers will soon be able to install in homes, scaled-down versions of the refrigerator-size racks of equipment that nestle beneath cell towers and carry your conversations as you speed down the highway. Early prototypes are not much bigger than a TV dinner.

Plugged into your high-speed Internet connection, they'll communicate with your existing cellphone whenever you're at home, and send your calls over the Internet. The benefits are better coverage, faster data speeds, and longer battery life for your handset - since it no longer has to communicate with a cell tower that may be a mile away.

The power of a cellular tower -- now in a home version - The Boston Globe

SEC filing: Icahn calls for a sale of BEA Systems | CNET News.com

Interesting times for BEA... 

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on Friday a sale of BEA Systems to a strategic acquirer would maximize the value of its shares and that he might seek to nominate directors to the software maker's board.

Icahn reported in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that he holds an 8.53 percent stake in BEA, or about 33.43 million shares.

SEC filing: Icahn calls for a sale of BEA Systems | CNET News.com

Yahoo's social network is here! | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

 Unclear, according to the article, if Yahoo 360 is history.

Yahoo's rumored social network, dubbed "Mash," has arrived. The company started inviting people outside the company to test it on Friday, the company says in a blog.

Mash is different from other social networks in that you can start profiles for your friends and "open" your own profile to friends you trust, according to the Mash blog. What that means, exactly, is still a bit unclear. You can also reportedly customize your profile or friends' profiles with other apps, ala Facebook.

Yahoo's social network is here! | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Software | Liquid concrete | Economist.com

Timely reality check on a strategic imperative for SAP 

What makes A1S such a departure for SAP is that rather than running on a firm's own computers, it is delivered as a service via the web. SAP is a latecomer to this “on demand” or “software as a service” approach, but A1S is the first fully fledged ERP suite available in this way. This may signal a shift in the nascent market for on-demand software, away from single functions such as customer-relationship management (CRM), and towards integrated suites. The current market leader is salesforce.com, a CRM provider, with 35,300 customers and expected revenues of $730m this year. By contrast, the figures for NetSuite, a rival firm that provides a suite of services, were only 5,300 and $67m respectively in 2006, and the firm has yet to make a profit. (This has not stopped it from filing to go public.)

A1S is also meant to be more flexible than traditional ERP software, since it has been built in a new way. Rather than being a collection of separate applications, it is a set of dozens of building blocks that can be assembled and rearranged like Lego pieces. This approach also allows companies to adapt business processes to make them more efficient, or when markets change—something that is very hard to do in the old ERP world.

Software | Liquid concrete | Economist.com

Salesforce.com Builds on 'Platform' Plan - WSJ.com

Salesforce.com prepares to throw the p-word gauntlet... 

The new initiative, Force.com, is expected to be launched on Monday at Salesforce.com's annual conference for developers. It marks the company's latest effort to turn itself into a "platform," allowing other Web developers to build their own Web-based services using Salesforce.com's technology and host those services on Salesforce.com's computers, said people familiar with the matter. A Salesforce.com spokeswoman declined to comment.

Salesforce.com Builds on 'Platform' Plan - WSJ.com

XML Aficionado: Office Open XML (OOXML) Update: Country comments tabulated & rated

 Timely reality check from Alex Falk

Rick Jellife today posted a great table of comments and likely outcomes of the upcoming 3rd round of ISO stantards voting on OOXML next spring based on reviewing each country's comments on the current DIS 29500 (= OOXML) proposal: [see full post for details]

[...]

After looking through Rick's table, my previous conclusion remains unchanged: most comments can be addressed easily - and will even make the standard better - and I expect OOXML to become an ISO standard next year.

XML Aficionado: Office Open XML (OOXML) Update: Country comments tabulated & rated